Nano technology has been applied in various fields. Especially, it has been most widely used in the fields of medicine and biotechnology. In the field of medicine, nano technology is applied to the fast and effective base sequence analysis enabling a revolution in treatment and diagnosis or to the nano sensing analysis that can prevent and diagnose human diseases. Also, in the field of biotechnology, it is used for the delivery of a gene or a drug, or the analysis technique based on a nano array.
Recently, various materials have been used to manufacture nanoparticles with various sizes. Nanoparticles are used for immune therapy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) diagnosis, drug delivery system development, and the like.
Among these, zinc oxide nanoparticles are widely used in the fields of ceramics, electric materials, sensors, and medicine and biology because of their electrical and optical properties. In particular, they have recently been widely used to develop biological detection apparatuses and the like through nanostructure synthesis using zinc oxide and organic material. In addition, they have low human health hazards (materials that have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as food additives) and thus are widely used as ointments, pigments, food additives, and the like in the industrial fields of medicine and medical supplies, and food. Therefore, the zinc oxide nanoparticles are being recognized as a material with very high biocompatibility, and are expected to be used in various biomedical science fields in the future.
A process of binding with biopolymers, such as a protein, is necessary in order to utilize the zinc oxide nanoparticles in the biomedical science fields. However, in most cases, the process of chemically treating the surfaces of the zinc oxide nanoparticles is introduced because the above-mentioned materials themselves do not bond strongly with other organic materials.
However, in the process of treating the surfaces of the zinc oxide nanoparticles, an organic solvent or a compound with high chemical reactivity should be used, which is limiting on the preparation of nanoparticles or structures that can be directly used for the human body and the applications thereof.